The Earliest Known Cities in the WORLD

Where on earth were the very first cities built, and when? In this video, Dr. M takes you through the evidence and counts down the five earliest known cities.

Contents
0:00 What counts as a city?
07:43 No. 5
09:10 No. 4
11:08 No. 3
12:14 No. 2
13:33 No. 1
15:04 Places that didn't make the list

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[michaelmanning]

I would argue for my city being one of the earliest . . . but I'm basing that on the state of the roads.

[AncientAmericas]

Thank you for not just giving us a list but also covering the other "honorable mentions". Great job!

[AB-etnj]

Also, a video that provides a timeline of ancient history would be immensely useful to those of us in need of an organizational structure. Clarifying the archeological and historical periodization terminology used among professionals would also be a great help.

[AB-etnj]

Can you do more "earliest" videos? Maybe the earliest "cultures"? The origin of things is quite fascinating.

[ralphyetmore]

I would expect so many similar channels to just get right to the list. But I so appreciate the importance of definition here, and everywhere on your channel. As always, great presentation. Thank you.

[dazuk]

This is actually a tricky question to answer if you think about it. David mentioned a few more candidates at the end that didn't make the list, and I am sure there are others. I suppose the most important thing is the criteria for a city listed at the start. I always learn something watching this channel. WOA, you are smashing it on the sub count. I wish you continued success.

[znl]

my favorite theory on why we started living in towns/cities is beer making

[flyingeagle]

This is a really nice overview of the oldest accepted urban sites, and the specific criteria used to determine their status.
Not sure I fully agree with the criteria, and the very old settlement of Jericho (walled, stone tower etc) is quite impressive, but any set of criteria, will be questionable, and arbitrary at its boundaries, and the list is a decent starting point.
The only place where I question the exclusion is the Moldavian/Balkan sites. In the temperate climate it's very possible that they had monumental architecture and bureaucracy but made of materials that didn't preserve as well. Excluding them as cities based on a lack of clear evidence for those things despite clear evidence for their size strikes me as highly arbitrary (and possibly revealing the challenge in overthrowing convention)
I'm also interested in the Tepe sites, as they are definitely larger than what has currently been excavated but there we absolutely need more evidence before being certain of where they fit on the sliding scale of development.

[chefhomeboyardee]

Love this content. Pure fact, no conjecture. No "ancient astronaut theorists" believe.

[wincentenglander]

I've always found Childe's list a little redundant since some of the criteria seem to identify a simular underlying fact. Existence of monumental structures seem to look for social stratification or potentially complex societal organisation, yet these are already established by other criteria. So what's the point of monumental architecture in and of itself for a city?
It seem to be a simular case for bureaucracy and class differences. If we see bureaucracy without class differences it would seem to follow that either the class differences are not visible in the archaeological record, or they were not needed for the organisation of a city. And since we can have class differences without bureaucracy or a city, but not a city without bureaucracy it would seem to make more sense to look for bureaucracy and not worry about socioeconomic stratification.
I know these are niche complaints, since most of these traits are highly correlated, but as an academic I live to split hairs. And I do think it's worth thinking about as it can help us evaluate and think about classification criteria in general.

[petelcek]

I am glad that You mentioned Cucuteni-Tripillian cities. Most of presenters just overlook them.
They were highly advanced by the using domesticated plants and animals. I think that Lower Danubian cultures from that time would soon join that list. Those like Vinča and related ones. It is highly possible that they even invented one of the oldest writing system. I wonder, why those highly advanced cultures just dissapeared at the beggining of the bronze age.

[dkakito]

I would love to see you do a video on Mohenjo-Daro and/or Harapaa. I know its not widely accepted as being as old as the cities named here, but I do remember there being debate about it being much older. (Some were arguing it was first "made" around 6000 BCE (made is in quotes, because I never found out what was meant when the word was used. Made could be when it was first settled as a trading outpost or something). But at the time I was studying more Israeli sites, and didnt look too hard at the claims). Regardless, the cities stands as archaeological masterpieces and deserve a spotlight in a video.

Also, there are several cities that Chinese Archaeologists CLAIM (key word) go back 6000 to 10000 years. They state they were actual cities at this time. I have never studied Oriental Archaeology, so I have no idea the voracity of these claims, and as these Archaeologists are under the yoke of the CCP, I have issues believing them. But I think it would be an important factor to talk about.

[BriccBalloon]

Great video! You should consider making a video listing the largest known settlements at different times in history. Like it would interesting to know what the largest settlement (without the rules defined in this video to be called a city) was in say 10, 000BCE and then 9, 000BCE, etc. Or maybe even older if we know that info.

[M.M.-U]

Very fascinating video. The analysis of the criteria is very usefull.
I'm a bit surprised by the lack of Chinese sites both on the Yangtze or the Yellow River, and this make me wish for a video comparison about timing and features of the six "original" state societies.

[JonBrownSherman]

Thank you for another excellent video, I hope your channel becomes one of the most popular on educational YouTube!

[ilikemoviesandmore]

Great video! As an urban geographer, these archeological definitions of what constitutes as a ‘city’ are very interesting to me. Some properties seem highly arbitrary, though I guess we need some clear cut boundaries to distinguish ‘villages’ and ‘towns’ from proper ‘cities’. The question of social and/or economic hierachary is especially thought provoking, as there seems to be a major difference between IS or OUGHT.

[EnisudR]

I didn’t know that the term “city” had such a specific definition. You learn something new every day. Thanks!

[rooneye]

Gobekle Tepe I guess isnt a city? but it is huge and is from 10, 000 bc. That place fascinates me just purely due to it's age. It was as far in the past to Uruk as Uruk is to us now. That blows my mind it's so ancient.

[ErgoCogita]

I like the hard-lined definition. Its very easy to fall into shaving down the definition to where too much overlap occurs.

[JS-jhcy]

It is an elusive question as to when does a settlement becomes a city category depends on what you think qualifies as a city